The Case for an Original Influencer: Louis Dupuy

Forget ring lights. Forget hashtags. Forget viral videos.  Louis Dupuy was building a devoted following decades before anyone dreamed of the internet.

The Evidence

Exhibit A: He Curated a Lifestyle Brand

Louis Dupuy wasn't just running a hotel. He sold an experience. Guests came for elegant French-inspired dining, refined surroundings, and the promise that, for a few hours or a few days, they could leave behind the rough-and-tumble silver mining camp outside and step into a little corner of Europe.  Today's influencers call it "creating an aesthetic."  Louis simply called it Hotel de Paris.

Exhibit B: Food Content Was His Specialty

Before food bloggers photographed every meal, visitors couldn't stop talking about Dupuy's cooking. His menus featured oysters, fine wines, elaborate dinners, and beautifully presented dishes that became legendary across the nation, and, arguably, the world.  No Instagram stories required.

Exhibit C: He Mastered Personal Branding

People didn't travel to meet "the hotel owner."  They came to experience Louis Dupuy, the "Oddest Host in America."  His personality, reputation, and hospitality became inseparable from the business itself. That's not just marketing—it's his professional brand.

Exhibit D: His Followers Shared His Content

There was no "share" button in the 1880s.  Instead, satisfied guests wrote letters, newspaper and magazine articles, and travel accounts praising Hotel de Paris. Word spread from one traveler to another until people sought out Georgetown, Colorado specifically to experience Dupuy's famous establishment. Word-of-mouth was the original algorithm.

Exhibit E: He Understood Exclusivity

The finest table settings. Imported ingredients. Carefully created interiors. An unforgettable atmosphere.  Modern influencers call this "aspirational content."  Louis called it just an ordinary Tuesday.

The Verdict

Was Louis Dupuy posting selfies? No.  Did he have followers? Absolutely.  Did he shape opinions, inspire travel, define taste, and convince people that experiencing Hotel de Paris was something they simply had to do?  Without question.

So, the next time someone says influencers are a modern invention, remind them that one of the first lifestyle influencers was serving oysters and French cuisine in Colorado nearly 150 years ago.  He just measured his engagement in full dining rooms instead of likes.

Why Hotel de Paris Museum Doesn't Reopen as a First-Class Luxury Hotel

"Why don't you reopen the hotel—even if it's only a few guest rooms?" 

This is one of the most frequent questions we receive at Hotel de Paris Museum...and it's understandable. Staying overnight in Louis Dupuy's legendary inn seems like an extraordinary opportunity to experience the past; however, the mission of Hotel de Paris Museum is to collect, preserve, and share history associated with Louis Dupuy's Hotel de Paris while serving as a catalyst for tourism. 

Since 1954, the property has been owned and operated by The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Colorado as a museum dedicated to preserving one of Colorado's most remarkable historic places.  Although reopening portions of the building for overnight accommodations may seem appealing, doing so would conflict with the very purpose for which the museum exists.

A Preservation Success Story

As early as 1945, historians with the State of Colorado recognized Hotel de Paris as an irreplaceable historic resource due to its completeness. Unlike many historic hotels that were remodeled beyond recognition or lost altogether, this building survived with an extraordinary degree of integrity.  Over the past seven decades, extensive preservation, restoration, and conservation work has focused on safeguarding the building and its artifact collection—not preparing it for modern overnight stays. Reopening guest rooms would place many of these achievements at risk.

Inescapable Wear and Tear

Historic buildings survive because use is carefully managed by the museum's owners and professional staff.  Even a small number of lodging guests would dramatically increase foot traffic on original floors and stairs, accelerate wear on historic finishes, require more frequent cleaning, and increase the handling of original doors, windows, locks, and hardware. Every additional use shortens the life of irreplaceable historic materials that cannot simply be replaced once worn out.

Protecting the Extraordinary

One of Hotel de Paris Museum's greatest distinctions is its remarkable collection of original furnishings that remain in or near their intended locations.  Operating guest rooms would inevitably increase the risk of accidental damage, breakage, and loss while creating significantly greater security challenges. The museum's responsibility is not simply to protect the building, but also the thousands of objects that tell the story of the site and the people who built it, worked it, and occupied it.

Room 9, Restored

Authenticity Matters

The goal of historic preservation has been to present the hotel as it appeared during Louis Dupuy's ownership—not to recreate it as a functioning twenty-first-century hotel.  Modern lodging requires bathrooms, fire suppression systems, emergency lighting, accessibility improvements, climate control, expanded electrical service, internet access, expanded security measures, and contemporary furnishings and amenities. Engaging these necessities would largely require substantial alterations that would diminish the building's genuineness.  Ironically, protecting historic artifacts might also require removing them from guest rooms altogether, making those spaces less authentic.

Room 9, Modernized

Museums and Hotels Have Different Focuses

Museums and operating hotels exist for fundamentally different purposes.  A history museum prioritizes preservation, research, and education. A hotel prioritizes guest comfort, convenience, and customer expectations. When those priorities conflict, historic preservation inevitably comes under pressure to accommodate modern lodging standards.

Preserving a Time Capsule

Louis Dupuy's Hotel de Paris is frequently described as the most unique and complete parcel of early Colorado history—a rare "time capsule" that offers visitors an authentic glimpse into the nineteenth century.  Converting preserved guest rooms back into commercial accommodations would fundamentally change their role. Historic rooms would become revenue-producing assets rather than preserved spaces, altering how visitors experience the site and potentially weakening the very qualities that make the property significant.  Such a change could also affect the philanthropic support upon which the museum has depended for decades.

Modern Infrastructure Comes at a Cost

Operating a hotel requires far more than beds and linens.  Reliable plumbing, expanded electrical capacity, heating and cooling systems, internet service, and modern life-safety systems all require extensive capital, installation, and ongoing maintenance. These upgrades often involve invasive work within historic walls, ceilings, and floors that historic preservation seeks to protect.

Honoring Investment

Millions of dollars in public, private, and philanthropic support have been donated to preserve Louis Dupuy's Hotel de Paris as a museum and cultural resource.  Those investments were made with the understanding that the property would remain dedicated to historic preservation, education, and interpretation. Returning portions of the hotel building to commercial lodging would represent a significant departure from that long-standing commitment.

Room 7, Restored

Increased Liability

Unlike museum visitors, overnight guests occupy a building for extended periods without direct supervision.  Potential risks include fire, water damage, accidental breakage, vandalism, personal injury claims, unauthorized access to restricted areas, theft, and damage caused by luggage, food, beverages, or pets. A single incident could undo years of careful stewardship.

Room 7, Modernized

Protecting the Experience

Museum visitors experience Hotel de Paris Museum as a protected historic resource.  Hotel guests naturally personalize the spaces they occupy by unpacking luggage, moving furnishings, charging electronics, eating meals, and otherwise treating rooms as temporary homes. This changes the visitor's relationship with the historic setting and diminishes its interpretive and educational values.

National Responsibility

Louis Dupuy's Hotel de Paris is important not simply because it was once a high-end hotel, but because it remains one of the nation's most complete examples of a nineteenth-century hotel preserved as a museum.  Its management carries responsibilities that extend well beyond local tourism. Preservation and conservation standards consistently emphasize protecting historic buildings and collections when continued commercial use would compromise long-term integrity.

Looking Forward

The good news is Hotel de Paris has already found a sustainable new purpose.  Since 1954, it has evolved from a threatened and deteriorated French inn into a nationally significant museum, tool for education, catalyst for heritage tourism, and community gathering place. That transformation represents one of Colorado's great historic preservation accomplishments.

The ultimate measure of success is not whether guests can once again spend the night within the hotel's historic walls. Rather, it is ensuring future generations can pass through the building and experience it much as visitors did during Louis Dupuy's lifetime.

Decades of careful restoration, conservation, and stewardship have preserved something exceedingly rare: an authentic nineteenth-century hotel that has become an artifact in its own right. Reopening guest rooms—even on a limited basis—would reverse that philosophy by treating the building as a hotel rather than preserving it as one of Colorado's (and, arguably the nation's) most extraordinary museums.

In the end, the greatest luxury Hotel de Paris Museum offers is not a night's stay. It is the opportunity to step into a place where history itself has been carefully preserved for the public.

If you would like to stay at a historic hotel in Colorado -- or anywhere in the United States -- visit Historic Hotels of America (the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that recognizes and celebrates the finest Historic Hotels).

Hidden Fragment, Global Story

Tucked beneath a corner vanity, a small fragment of wallpaper quietly gestures toward a much larger story—one that stretches across oceans and cultures.

Out of sight in Louis Dupuy's Hotel de Paris is a remnant of the property's earliest days. With its delicate pattern inspired by Anglo-Japanese style, what is left of the polychrome wall covering reflects a moment in the 19th century when American and European tastes were profoundly reshaped by an artistic encounter with Japan.

Preserved wallpaper, Room 8

The Opening of Japan—and the Flood of Influence

For over two centuries, Japan maintained a policy of relative isolation from the Western world. That changed in 1853 with the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry, whose expedition initiated a series of treaties that opened Japanese ports to foreign trade.  What followed was not just commerce—but fascination.  Japanese goods—woodblock prints, ceramics, textiles, lacquerware—began flowing into Europe and the United States. To Western eyes, these objects felt radically different: asymmetrical compositions, flattened perspectives, natural motifs, and an elegance rooted in restraint. This aesthetic movement became known as Japonisme.

Dinner caster, Restaurant Dining Room

Bristolware vase, Restaurant Dining Room

From Elite Curiosity to Domestic Style

Initially, Japanese art captivated collectors, artists, and designers.  Figures like American painter and artist James McNeill Whistler and American artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany incorporated Japanese principles into their work.  But the appeal did not stay confined to galleries.  By the 1870s and 1880s, the Anglo-Japanese style--an offshoot of the broader Aesthetic Movement made popular by Irish author and poet Oscar Wilde--began appearing in middle-class homes (and, in our case, a commercial property).  Pattern books, imported goods, and domestic manufacturers translated Japanese design into accessible forms:  birds, bamboo, and florals; emphasis on negative space and simplicity; and, flattened, decorative compositions rather than illusionistic depth.

Ceiling fixture (detail), Sample Room 2

Squat globe, Sample Room 2

Harmony Between Nature and Design

Even in the remote Rocky Mountain mining camp of Georgetown, Colordo, these global currents made their mark.  The popularity of Japanese-inspired design in 19th century America wasn’t accidental. It answered several cultural desires at once:

1. A reaction against industrial excess

As industrialization accelerated, many Americans sought alternatives to mass-produced clutter. Japanese design—with its clarity and restraint—offered a kind of visual relief.

2. A Taste for the Exotic (the Romanticized “Elsewhere”)

Japan was imagined as refined, mysterious, and timeless. Incorporating its motifs allowed Americans to participate in a global, cosmopolitan identity.

3. Alignment with the Aesthetic Movement

The idea of “art for art’s sake”—that beauty itself had value—found a natural partner in Japanese decorative arts, which elevated everyday objects into works of art.

A Fragment as Evidence of Connection

Our surviving piece of wallpaper in Room 8 is out of sight, so it is easy to miss. And yet, it embodies a remarkable truth: even in a frontier setting like Louis Dupuy's Hotel de Paris, global artistic movements were not distant abstractions—they were lived, chosen, and embedded into daily life.  It suggests that the people who passed through these rooms—travelers, workers, artists, dreamers—were not isolated from the wider world. They were participants in it.

Looking Closer

Fragments invite us to look more carefully—not just at what is preserved, but at what lingers in the margins. Beneath furniture, behind walls, in overlooked corners, history waits in partial form.  And sometimes, a fragment is enough to tell a global story.

Wallpaper labled "0 352 A.W.P.M.A." (American Wall Paper Manufacturers Association) 

Awaiting Your Inspection

With the help of Bo Sullivan of Arcalus Period Design and Wayne Mason of Mason & Wolf, we located our wallpaper pattern in the archive of the Benson Ford Research Center at Henry Ford of Dearborn, Michigan.  See the full-size reproduction for yourself, now on display in Room 8.  Printing by Grizzly Creek Gallery, 512 6th Street, Georgetown, Colorado.

A Contemplative Setting Deepens Emotional Connections

The West Courtyard at Louis Dupuy’s Hotel de Paris was used for butchering meat, and storing  cords of firewood and a pile of coal. 

Enclosed by stone walls built by Chinese laborers in the late 19^th century, the West Courtyard at Hotel de Paris Museum is shielded from the hustle-and-bustle of the modern world.  This creates a calm area, a kind of palate cleanser, where visitors can sit and absorb history they learned on one of our self-guided tours.

The West Courtyard provides a reset—something grounding after moving through interior spaces.  Visitors can chat with companions, scroll through photos, or just sit in silence.

Hotel de Paris Museum is a member of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), which advocates for museums to function as “community anchors” that provide spaces for rest, reflection, and emotional processing.  Therefore, Hotel de Paris Museum has upgraded and reopened its West Courtyard as a quiet zone to help reduce sensory overload, and to facilitate and support visitor well-being and inclusion in a calm space.

Our West Courtyard enhances the visitor experience by providing a physical and psychological break from the museum’s dense Victorian interiors to a serene, open-air environment that allows self-reflection and healing.  For those seeking rest and reflection, it offers a “secret garden” atmosphere that contrasts with the detailed indoor tour.

After 1901, the courtyard transitioned from work to relaxation.  Photographs show members of the Burkholder Family enjoying the sun-drenched, private space.

In addition, our West Courtyard seating encourages visitors to slow down and connect more deeply with Louis Dupuy’s story of reinvention and second-chances.  According to AAM, 4 out of 5 museum-goers are looking for a place to sit, relax, and decompress; therefore, our courtyard delivers exactly that in a setting that feels intentional and restorative.  Framed by historic architecture and thoughtfully furnished, the space invites visitors to pause while touring, reflect on what they’ve experienced, or simply take a breath.

Reversal of Opinion: Removing a Decades-Old Restoration

Hotel de Paris was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service in 1970.  Properties on this prestigious inventory are not required to undergo renovation; however, if repairs or improvements are conducted they are guided by The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.  The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Colorado, owners and operators of the site, chose Restoration as a treatment encouraged by the NPS as “…accurately depicting the form, features, and character of the property as it appeared at a particular period of time…”  We refer to our period of significance as the “Louis Dupuy era” (1875-1900).

Room 14 (Study) with acanthus frieze.

Impact of the Bicentennial

With the approach of the United States Bicentennial in 1976, the early 1970s was a time marked by fundraising and renovation projects.  Plaster, paint, carpeting, and wallpaper were identified as critical priorities for the anticipated onslaught of heritage travelers in numbers never before seen.  American television journalist  Charles Kuralt set the scene in advance when he featured Georgetown, Colorado and Hotel de Paris in On the Road, a segment on CBS Evening News. 

The hand-blocked frieze has variations.
Hotel de Paris Museum.

An Artist's Interest and Talent

Because of the worn condition of the original paper, a custom reproduction was commissioned to create a physically and visually compatible replacement that reflected the original in design, colors, texture, and material.  The intent was to improve the appearance of the border without creating a false sense of history.  To practice Preservation, the original acanthus leaf wallpaper border was left in other parts of the hotel, which allowed an opportunity to compare preserved examples to the reproduction.

Jack Riddle recreated an 1880s frieze.

Denver native John “Jack” Ray Riddle (1932-2009), an artist with a degree in Graphic Art from Denver University, was chosen for the project.  Jack owned art studios in Denver and was familiar with Hotel de Paris through his family’s involvement in its museum operation (his mother Ellen Riddle was a member of the NSCDA in CO and chairman of the Hotel de Paris Museum committee).  Jack’s skills enabled him to copy the hotel’s acanthus leaf pattern and have it printed.  He used a silk-screening technique, which required great delicacy and time.  Layer after layer of color was hand screened onto smooth, white border paper manufactured by Weyerhaeuser Company.  Fortunately, Jack had the foresight to order extra wallpaper border.  It is this backstock that allowed us to conduct recent repairs.

Reversible Change

Fast-forward to the early 2020s, when failure of wallpaper paste lead to an unexpected discovery; a portion of Louis Dupuy's original frieze in Room 14 (Study) remained in a good condtion.  Therefore, it would become an example of reversible change.

1880s, 1970s, and 2020s at a crossroad.

A side-by-side comparison of
reproduction to original is now possible.

Steps included:

• Defining scope of work, including decision to reverse previous restoration efforts
• Carefully removing reproduction wall paper frieze
• Assessing condition of original wall paper frieze
• Cleaning original wall paper frieze with dry erasers
• Patching unsalvageable top edge of original with reproduction wall paper
• Re-installing reproduction wall paper frieze, with care taken to match the design repeat
• Casting and painting moldings where ceiling trim and picture railings were missing

Dry erasers were used to remove
decades of dust and cigar smoke.

Surviving moldings were used
to reproduce missing pieces.

New cast elements were color matched to
existing examples and used to fill voids.

A Leading Firm

Today, more is known about the manufacturer of the hotel’s wallpaper frieze.  A fragment of a second pattern is kept in the museum’s archives.  Although the top edge of the sample is partial, one can distinguish the words “STANDARD. WALL PAPER CO”.  The company’s line of papers “was comprehensive enough to meet the demands of the most exacting buyer.”  Assuming Louis Dupuy maintained brand loyalty, the acanthus leaf border may also have been produced sometime in the 1880s by this New York company, reputed to be the largest maker of wall papers in the world.

Standard Wall Paper Company, New York.

Medallion frieze by Standard Wall Paper Company.
Hotel de Paris Museum.

Future Restorations

The machine-printed medallion design by Standard Wall Paper Company in burgundy, pale yellow, terra cotta, beige, and dark blue with gold and green metallic outlines of gilt dust on a graduated green background can be seen in historic photographic images of Sample Room 2 and Guest Room 5 at Hotel de Paris.  A future reproduction of this pattern will enable a more accurate interpretation of these rooms (the acanthus leaf pattern replaced the medallion pattern in the 1970s).  Further investigations and discoveries could even expand this list of locations and aid in further fact-based restoration projects at Louis Dupuy’s Hotel de Paris.

Sample Room 2 with medallion frieze.
Hotel de Paris Museum.

Room 5 with medallion frieze.
Farm Security Administration, 1939.

 

Louis Dupuy's Hotel de Paris Is "Residually Haunted"

In recent years, “dark tourism” (visitation of cemeteries, battlefields, ghost towns, haunted buildings, etcetera) has become popular within the heritage tourism community due to the popularity of books such as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Devil in the White City.  The term “dark tourism” was first coined in 1996 by Professors John Lennon and Malcolm Foley of Glasgow Caledonian University, Department of Hospitality, Tourism & Leisure Management.

Anne Marie Cannon of Silver Queen Walking Tours
(Image courtesy of Mountain Living magazine)

Here in Georgetown, Colorado, Silver Queen Walking Tours offers three themed guided walking tours, and according to owner/operator Anne Marie Cannon, her “Georgetown Ghost Tour” is the most popular experience no matter the time of year.

Once viewed as a distraction from the scholarly study and appreciation of historic places, many professionals now accept (and even invite) tourists who were once viewed as a nuisance because of their interest in paranormal and macabre subjects.

Hotel de Paris Museum is no exception from the interest of dark tourism visitors.  Our staff is often asked about ghosts and hauntings, especially leading up to and through the month of October, and Visit Clear Creek has designated Hotel de Paris Museum “certified haunted.”

Marquee on Louis Dupuy's Hotel de Paris
(Image courtesy of Clear Creek County Tourism Bureau)

Hotel de Paris Museum falls into a type of dark tourism known as “supernatural tourism.”  Therefore, Anne Marie Cannon put me in touch with paranormal investigator and filmmaker Alan Megargle who came to the hotel in 2018 with team member Anna Meyer Evans to help answer the question, “Is the hotel haunted?”

Leading up to the visit by these paranormal investigators, staff reported encountering smells with no apparent source.  The list includes coffee, bread, frosting, oranges, cinnamon, curry, perfume, and cigars.  A quick inspection of receipts belonging to proprietor Louis Dupuy indicates all these items were purchased by him.  Other otherworldly experiences have been indistinct sounds of people moving about in the Commercial Kitchen and on the 2^nd Floor, the wild swinging of velvet ropes around cordoned off areas, the loud clattering of dishes and silverware in the Restaurant Dining Room, and an insistent rattling of a doorknob in the Hotel Laundry.

Louis Dupuy's order included oranges

Megargle’s team brought high-tech equipment to detect additional activity.  They used a REM Pod (to detect magnetic fields), flashlights (for spirits to interact with), an EVP (to capture electronic voice phenomena), a spirit box (to generate white noise that allows spirit voices to come through to the physical world), and an Ovilus (to produce words from environmental factors).  Our word list included cold, chest, hurt, remember, scruple, haze, papa, calm, beg, drive, and Tesla (perhaps Nikola Tesla, who visited Georgetown sometime from May 1899 to early 1900).

"Ghosts in Ghost Towns" explores the eerie remains of the mining boom, the stories of the people who lived there, and the subsequent spirits that still haunt the towns of the Wild West.

Ultimately, Alan and Anna determined Louis Dupuy’s Hotel de Paris is peaceful and has a residual haunting, not an intelligent haunting.  See their investigation in the documentary Ghosts in Ghost Towns: Haunting the Wild West.

Interested in visiting to find out for yourself?  Guided tour reservations available at hoteldeparismuseum.org.  Open weekends only in October and November.

Room Numbers: Aligning Reproductions With Preservation Standards

Hotel de Paris Museum retains approximately 90% of the furnishings original to proprietor Louis Dupuy, who owned and operated Hotel de Paris from 1875-1900.  Missing furnishings (amounting to approximately 10% of the furnishings) are inconsequential in telling our story of reinvention and second chances in the Western United States.

Due to the immense quantity of furniture, fixtures, tools, dishes, decorative objects, artworks, books, periodicals, maps, food, drink, etcetera, it appears James J. White (the attorney who settled Dupuy’s estate)  instructed Howard Strousse (a friend to Dupuy) to list only major pieces in an appraisement bill and, in the interest of time, forgo recording the existence of architectural features such as light fixtures, door and window hardware, and room numbers.

Ghost mark at entrance of Sample Room 2

Paper template for installation of reproduction number

New brushed brass room number

For unknown reasons, some of these brass room numbers did not survive.  Entrances to Rooms 2, 6, 7, and 10 showed ghost marks and evidence of mounting hardware, but the numbers were no longer present nor were they discovered in the museum's artifact collection.  Replacement of missing features was substantiated by physical evidence provided by surviving numbers from Rooms 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12, and 14.  Room 13 was never marked.

It was important to align the project with historic preservation standards.  Like the addition of street numbers to the façade of Hotel de Paris Museum in 2012, a decision was made to use compatible numbers to distinguish between original and reproduction (for more information on this subject, read the blog article “Street Numbers:  Addressing Modern Requirements Within an Old Context”).  The slight difference in text styles is helpful in distinguishing between old and new and will have no significance or alter the site’s integrity.

Ghost mark on door to Room 7

Paper template with level line

Completed project

Woodland Manufacturing of Meridian, Idaho was chosen to fabricate custom compatible numbers.  Clarendon Bold URW, 1/4" thick, 2" high in brushed brass with hidden flush stud mounting hardware was chosen.  The font is a "contemporary remake of the truly classic slab serif typeface."  Ashley R. Wilson, Graham Gund Architect with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, provided consultation on the selection of the reproductions.  She observed, "The font you selected, especially if the size is almost the same, is appropriate."

The generosity of Debra DeForest, active member of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Colorado, made the project possible.